Downloads: ___Darth Formations M2TW Version 4.5 War Pack___

Darth Formations M2TW Version 4.5 War Pack

-This is a breakthrough file (Optional file "Copy this to your Data", for other mods so use it at your own pleasure it is in \...\Medieval II Total War\data\unit_models\battle_models.db enclosed.). I Have checked KnightErrant ingenious formatted file of battle_models.db (thank you KnightErrant) and started to examine how I could edit something there. I changed the called by me "animation vectors" of each unit to more professional values to improve the melee efficiency of all units and also provide variance of skills.
The previous universal melee animation vectors were:
-0.090000004 0 0 -0.34999999 0.80000001 0.60000002

The new base parameters are:

mounted horses
-0.9 0 0 -0.9 2.5 1.3

General mounted horses
-0.9 0 0 -0.9 2.5 0.5

unshielded infantry
-0.09 0 0 -0.65 1.2 1.0

shielded light infantry
-0.7 0 0 -0.65 1.2 1.0

shielded heavy infantry
-0.95 0.6 0.0 -0.65 1.2 1.0

polearm infantry
-0.15 0 0 -0.95 1.2 1.2

2handed sword/axe infantry
-0.75 0 0 -0.75 1.2 1.2

and for cavalry mount:

0 0 45 0 0 0 0 0 0

and for elephant mount

0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0

And the armour upgrade system is for example:

I take again for example these vectors:
-0.95 0.6 0.0 -0.65 1.2 1.0

armour ug1

-0.95 0.6 0.0 -0.65 1.2 0.8

armour ug2

-0.95 0.6 0.0 -0.65 1.2 0.6

armour ug3

-0.95 0.6 0.0 -0.65 1.2 0.4

These animation vectors are tremendously affecting the melee efficiency of each troop seperately. Do not bombard me with PM questions...I will not answer to them at all for the time being since I have little time and also these values still remain a "mystery" to me solved only by the dark side intuition than a direct algorithm. Still I have a theory in this which will describe in the future.
But nevertheless the dark side has helped me to find these "proper" values and now you will not only fight better and more prolonged battles. Now you will visually see each troop to efficiently block hits with his polearm, sword and of course shield which previously had too small effective pitch radius as it seemed and so this is why it never or seldomly triggered. The beta team and the community will use its time to tell me if I am actually true in this and I provide the files not only to enhance DarthMod experience but for all modders to use my file \SEGA\Medieval II Total War\data\unit_models\battle_models.db enclosed.
I provide also the back up with name backbattle_models.db for you to revert easily.


The theory behind this may be totally different but it works as I want so better to accept it as is. Open to hear from anyone anything he can find to enhance it.

-New special formation command system (used in my old RTW formations) forcing phalanxes/infantry to behave properly, generals to stop being hotheaded and support the infantry coherent approach. You have to see this. For example voulgier has awfully slow phalanx animation making them completely useless for the AI. Now the AI will swap to unphalanx to be able to walk together with the vanguard and then swap timely to phalanx and defend itself when the melee starts. The AI tactics become more cautious and clever although they somewhat lose their barbaric feeling.
-Changed a lot of things in total AI manipulation. Have completed the new method of infantry/phalanx correct AI manipulation. Have inserted new thresholds of AI army. The AI army will use better the infantry center and the cavalry as satellites or devastating frontal charges. Wll more effectively use reserves and fix a steady line of battle. General unit is a lot more conservative and uses strategic positions to command the army. Hopefully, siege AI is also improved. Do not tell me about the spy problem of gates because it is not my fault (As I read in some posts around from fellow co-modders) and tried hard to find the solution for it but hopefully the patch will resolve it. I have no more tools in my hands.
Also unit cohesion charges are enormously improved.
-Adapted my innovative pathfinding system to my new animation vector parameters. As a result = more ferocious melees, more effective AI.



----Old Documentation----

-Enhanced Violence/chaos system of melees and AI determination of attack.
-Improved various things in siege battle warfare
-Enormously increased the self dependence of units through reaction/pathfinding procedures. Strong melee troops will be very effective if let alone and spearmen best at guard mode. Cavalry will not need anything mostly from you once it engages unless overwhelmed and impetuous. AI will know that too.This feature is seen best in my standalone DarthMod 1.3C + OS16 because of many other features included.

Darth Vader 09/02/2007

-Included the final hopefully siege pathfinding fix version to resolve the known CA bug when AI attacks you with ladders or towers(You will notice the AI to storm you like middle earth orcs!). Everything balanced in a way that attack bandwith is not too strong, not too weak and of course no idle stance of ladders any more. That means, AI will use the ladders to the end of the attack. The one ladder usage when men are in short is still existent.
-Enhanced the ferociousness, effectiveness and self-dependence of each unit with pathfinding methods. In fact I use a paradox offset method where max width < min width and vice versa. With minus settings I increase the cohesion of units and their effective vicinity. They will respond more quickly to threats and multiple fronts according to unit's stats and animations.
-General's behaviour is improved
-Cavalry behaviour is improved
-Attacking AI approach is more cautious
-Enveloping of AI is more clever
-General outcome of battles is more difficult for the player

Darth Vader 04/02/2007

-Revamped the whole AI_config to various matters that affect gameplay in battle (To all modders:test your settings after you apply because all the battle system will change)
1)Improved thresholds and responses
2)Improved melee offsets
3)Made AI more careful in its attack approach (although sometimes it does not work better for it but it is visually more humanised)
4)Updated some siege and bridge matters
5)Was forced to remove all the swapping formation system because sometimes the AI got confused and did not react as I wanted to. So I created 2 generic formations to help the AI use a straighforward method of attack than swap to very different formations sometimes. The AI system of M2TW cannot accept for some reasons my techniques I used for RTW. This has to be tested by the beta team and any willing person to see if it actually is better than the formations pack 3.0.
-Radically improved the pathfinding method and together with other settings the chaos of battle is as close to reality as never before. This is good because now the elite units are self depended and respond to the incoming threats even without your orders while the more low level units tend to need reminding in order to advance. The impetuous units can really be a let go force although you must rally them from time to time. Cavalry will be a self depended force. When it attacks it will lethally find the best way to survive, move and kill without you to micromanage it. Maybe they need some orders to retreat if they are too impetuous. Generally the units are not idle as before but tend to quickly respond to threats and move in the whole battlefield like independed men. This makes the battlefield very uneasy to command but maybe easier to observe since you can be more sure about your men's survival ability than reminding them of all the threats. Also this makes battles to become more realistic, that is to give some quick commands and then see the outcome because later everything becomes almost uncontrolled. This may help the human player against the AI in some battles but surely can lose many times because of the loss of cohesion created by the impetus. So try to use the guard mode now as much as possible to tell your men to stick to formation or fight as a brutal barbarian with trust to your men's courage.
-Corrected all issues reported yesterday in AI section (thank you all)
-Brought back the 2 default hard coded formations used by CA and use them in manner of internal grouping system. They are declared in configAI but have no role. So they are used internaly over my 2 generic formation roles and with other adjustments seems that AI behaves a lot more intelligently and less straightforwardly and predicted.

Darth Vader 28/01/2007


-Corrected the reported siege bug AI.(All units go in the plaza)
-Improved the code so that the formations are actually used in large probability. There is anew system vastly different than RTW. In order to override the serial compiling method of the formationAI.txt (As it seems), I use an incremental method of priority so that more descended formation cose ihas larger priority and is not ignored.
-Seriously improved the AI config and no the AI is terribly hunting down the human opponent till only one pre-vails. Passiveness is eradictaed.
-Created multiple settings according to difficulty levels
-The characterization is not implemented optimally due to the unknown for me algorithm to override some AI routines. But indirectly and with various methods you will witness the best AI opponent so far introduced by me

Darth Vader 23/01/2007

-Fixed the code so that all formations are correctly prioritised for the AI for the full characterization of AI armies. The new AI system is far different than in RTW.
Pls use this for the DarthMod Lite and not the internal which is not wrong but far inferior from this new urgent update.

Darth Vader 21/01/2007

1)Corrected the code so that Darth AI swapping system is utilised correctly for the AI and does not swap to default when it attacks.
2)This new method gives finally the special character for each army and for example you will anticipate historical difficulty for each faction you counter.(Byzantines use deceiving strategies, Turks the usual Nomad technique, Germans the usual concrete delta formation, French the hot headed but effective cavalry charge etc.)
3)Improved the siege code to enhance AI attack bandwith, make it patrol around the castle and attack your weak spots and probably fix the known CA spy/gate bug
4)Included the Darth pathfinding mod
-Innovative new pathfinding modding. This corrects and improves the following:
(-)More humanised grouping and moving of troops in the battlefield.(Less sychronisation between them, occasional AI column widthing when moving etc.)
(-)More variation of penalties and bonuses for every type of unit and terrain so that AI can use them better in pre-calc.(Cavalry will rule the open terrain battlefield, will be afraid of harsh terrain, infantry will be good for all around defending etc.)
(-)Corrects probably and decisively the unit chargecohesion problem (Not eradicated but improved)
5)Included the Darth realistic Unit speeds

The war pack includes a simple to use for all mods set to improve your game. Try DarthMod Lite series for full effects.

Darth Vader 20/01/2007


These are my latest formations for M2TW. This project was not evolving as beta as I did not expect the majority of the community to put surgical tests in this important and fragile matter of AI manipulation. After a lot of frustration I believe I have a product that will please all the community and not a proportion of it.
I have released before some days a simple default version of AI formation only to test some default things if there are acceptable.
Now I am ready to give you the full thing in its full power to enjoy what it should have been done by CA and not a modder.
Here are the most important things I include (+ to update 6/1/2007):

-Improved all the battle config AI in almost every matter(offsets, tactics, melee mechanics etc.)
-Seriously improved bridge battles(AI will keep reserves and also projectile units and siege machines to volley the human player than previously mass pass the bridge like an idiot)
-Included the Darth Swapping system of Formation
-Included many special per faction formation AI for unique strategies per culture and faction for extreme variance of gameplay (Witness French hot headed Chivalric Knight Charges, Byzantine Cleverness, Arabian skirmishing, Mongol Nomad attacks, Polish Knight Charges, Delta mass Germanic Formation and many more….)

Seriously this has to be seen so I await your valuable feedback to help me evolve it and perfect the system if it is not perfect by now.

For full experience try it with my personal mod DarthMod Lite series and keeping updated with my latest open source files.

Darth Vader 12/01/2007

These are the formations and their respective cooperative files for someone to use while playing M2TW default or any mod.
In order to play them optimally you must play with all files related to DarthMod Lite 1.1 but you can play with no problems with any other combination of mods.

In this first version of the formations I have optimized the internal default formations of CA in many occasions (More coherence, some internal swapping, much better AI internal commands in config AI, better AI siege deploy and strategy etc.)

Next target will be to fix specific formations for each faction

I repeat in order to maximize the effectiveness of the formations you must use them with combination of mods or my full DarthMod Lite 1.1 which includes them already and you can witness their full effectiveness in action.

update 6/1/2007

-Improved siege warfare overally
-Eliminated AI passiveness when outmissiled

----Old Documentation----


Installation:

-Since modding is much easier now than before I provide the files in their text free form for you to manually copy/move them to each respective “data” folder using the “mod switch”.

I wish you enjoy them and give to me your valuable feedback to help me evolute them.